Something Old

As everyone knows by now, my grandfather passed away earlier this week. He was really the only grandparent I ever had since my grandma and the other older relatives passed-on before I was born; this will also be the first funeral I will attend for one of my own family members. Most of my memories of him are of the couple of years when he picked me up from school everyday. Every single day he pulled up to my elementary school with a double cheeseburger, fries, and a rootbeer or a shake from Carl's Jr. It's a mystery how I wasn't obese. Then we would drive to my brother's high school and talk about my day until my brother made his way out to the car. I also remember when he speant a very long time in Toys 'R Us trying to pick-out a Barbie wedding dress for my birthday present one year. So while I can't say we always had very much in common, I knew that he was always there for me no matter what, no questions asked.

To be completely honest, I was kind of surprised by how much his death has affected me since we had all been expecting it to happen for the past few months. After a lot of thinking and talking with Darryl, I think that it's because I now feel kind of disconnected from my past. While my family has always shared stories and old photographs of little bits of our family history, I don't think it ever mattered as much to me as it does now. It wasn't until now, in the midst of planning my wedding and beginning to form a new family with Darryl (and the cats), that I've become more curious about what happened way back when my grandparents, and great-grandparents, got married and made all kinds of decisions that sealed the fate of the family's future. All of the sudden it matters a lot more to me what happened to my grandmother's wedding dress and rings, or my great-grandmother's antique dishes. Sure, I have tons of stuff from my own mother, as well as little things from my childhood that I'm saving just in case we have a daughter someday, but it would be nice to find something from our earliest known history to feel a connection to.

So while I am going to try and hunt down some of those things, ultimately I can focus on the memories I alone have, and also on the fact that Darryl and I can create those kinds of heirlooms for our own kids and grandkids so that they can have "something old" for their wedding days.

Fall Update

I know, I know, it's been a very long time since my last blog. It's a good thing I don't have one of those bridal blogs with sponsors and such or else they would have all left by now. Honestly, I really have been busy. This is probably the hardest and most time consuming semester of my degree. After this quarter it should be smooth-sailing, so hopefully more blogs will follow.

Also, my whole office went to San Francisco for a weekend, which was a very nice break from the normal day-to-day, but proved to not tame my travel lust but to make it greater. So the good news is that Darryl and I will be taking our first real vacation together in November to Chicago to visit Justin and Meesa for three blisteringly cold days. I was hesitant to drop that much cash on plane tickets when we are supposed to be saving for our wedding (606 days from today), but truth be told, if all I do is focus on the wedding this early in the game, I will surely lose my mind. Thus, the trip is a much needed distraction, not to mention one of those rare opportunities to travel to a new place, and to buy cute outerwear.

Darryl's student teaching is well underway now. Despite the exhaustion of actually teaching classes all day in addition to still having night classes, he loves teaching and is very happy with his career move. We went to our very first high school dance (seriously, ever) last weekend as chaperones and discovered that we didn't miss much as teenagers. Maybe winter formal will be better. Homecoming consisted of sitting at a table with the other student teachers, watching a door which security opened up later anyway, for four hours. We learned two things: DJs are still using the same music that was popular when we were in high school, and teenagers dancing is like watching a big group of little animals in heat. I feel so old.

Personally, I've decided that if I can't handle teaching one day, I'll become a pastry chef. Some back-up plan, right? I've recently discovered that I'm actually pretty good at cake decorating, even the more complicated stuff. Making things pretty with icing is like a zen experience, as long as you don't get too stressed-out by it. Pastry school would be fun and exciting, but is very expensive. Maybe if we win the lottery or retire rich I could have my very own little cupcake and wedding patisserie. Rest assured, though, I'm not crazy enough to try and make my own wedding cake; we'll leave that to the professionals. In the mean time, you can all expect some very impressive birthday cakes in the future.